Hay Dude
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2012
- Messages
- 16,607
- Tractor
- Challenger MT655E, Massey Ferguson 7495, Challenger MT535B, Krone 4x4 XC baler, Kubota F3680 & ZD331 Ram 5500 Cummins 4x4, IH 7500 4x4 dump truck, Kaufman 35’ tandem 19 ton trailer, John Deere CX-15
Traveling on a local winding 2 lane road. Inside lane has sheer rock and trees, outside lane has a very close guardrail and a 10’ tumble down into a swamp. No shoulder on either side. There’s just nowhere to go.
While pulling my Hesston square baler behind my Massey 7495 on the inside lane, rock outcroppings on my right, you guessed it, here comes a dope over the double yellow lines, leaving me with 2 choices
1. Hit the drivers side of the car and possibly kill the driver
2. Eat rock outcroppings with baler
I chose 2.
Surprisingly, the baler steel and sheetmetal survived. The right side tire? Not so lucky.
The sidewall was ripped off, bigly.
Immediately slowed down and lost all air pressure. I was on the rim doing 2MPH with a line of angry drivers stuck behind me.
Luckily I hobbled off the road into one of my customers fields.
On the last 100’ of pavement, I bent the rim in 3 spots. The tire was completely trashed.
I ripped the 3 lines of twine down to the needles and broke off a spring assisting the trip arm.
The baler has (2) 2000 lb bales in the chamber & chute. I estimated weight to be about 24,000lbs. This was just the beginning. The right side of the baler was bottomed out in a soft rain soaked field.
The first attempts to jack up the baler didn’t go so well. On soft ground, jacks don’t work so well :/
After hours and 3 jacks and a lot of blocking & cribbing, we finally got her up high enough to remove the tire. We probably broke every safety rule there is to lift the 12 ton baler out of the mud.
This morning we got back on it with 2 new BKT tires ($3200) and a “home repaired” rim. We also installed a Michelin tube in the tire with the bent rim.
The jack could not go any higher and we couldn’t quite fit the tire onto the studs.
We had to put lug nuts on the top 2 studs and draw the rim on, one stud at a time. Not what I like to do, but we didn’t strip any studs and it worked.
At last we got the straightened out rim and the tire bolted down. The old girl got some new shoes and $4,000 later will roar once again.
The accident scared the crap out of me, but the old tires were on their way out and replacement was planned this winter. The bent rim and the extra cost & labor to jack the baler out of the mud was an unpleasant and unexpected extra expense in an already rough year with doubling of fuel & parts prices.
Luckily nobody was hurt. I hope the driver that left me no choice has a nice life knowing he never stopped to help or offer to pay for the damage it caused.
Let’s Go Bale!
While pulling my Hesston square baler behind my Massey 7495 on the inside lane, rock outcroppings on my right, you guessed it, here comes a dope over the double yellow lines, leaving me with 2 choices
1. Hit the drivers side of the car and possibly kill the driver
2. Eat rock outcroppings with baler
I chose 2.
Surprisingly, the baler steel and sheetmetal survived. The right side tire? Not so lucky.
The sidewall was ripped off, bigly.
Immediately slowed down and lost all air pressure. I was on the rim doing 2MPH with a line of angry drivers stuck behind me.
Luckily I hobbled off the road into one of my customers fields.
On the last 100’ of pavement, I bent the rim in 3 spots. The tire was completely trashed.
I ripped the 3 lines of twine down to the needles and broke off a spring assisting the trip arm.
The baler has (2) 2000 lb bales in the chamber & chute. I estimated weight to be about 24,000lbs. This was just the beginning. The right side of the baler was bottomed out in a soft rain soaked field.
The first attempts to jack up the baler didn’t go so well. On soft ground, jacks don’t work so well :/
After hours and 3 jacks and a lot of blocking & cribbing, we finally got her up high enough to remove the tire. We probably broke every safety rule there is to lift the 12 ton baler out of the mud.
This morning we got back on it with 2 new BKT tires ($3200) and a “home repaired” rim. We also installed a Michelin tube in the tire with the bent rim.
The jack could not go any higher and we couldn’t quite fit the tire onto the studs.
We had to put lug nuts on the top 2 studs and draw the rim on, one stud at a time. Not what I like to do, but we didn’t strip any studs and it worked.
At last we got the straightened out rim and the tire bolted down. The old girl got some new shoes and $4,000 later will roar once again.
The accident scared the crap out of me, but the old tires were on their way out and replacement was planned this winter. The bent rim and the extra cost & labor to jack the baler out of the mud was an unpleasant and unexpected extra expense in an already rough year with doubling of fuel & parts prices.
Luckily nobody was hurt. I hope the driver that left me no choice has a nice life knowing he never stopped to help or offer to pay for the damage it caused.
Let’s Go Bale!